At a fundraiser at the Richmond, VA Marriott tonight for the Romney campaign, there was a surprise guest. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell introduced Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who in turn introduced Rep. Paul Ryan. But before McDonnell took the mic, another figure was acknowledging dignitaries in the crowd. Among those dignitaries addressed from the stage, was former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, according to a Tatler source who was there.
Wilder, a Democrat, is the first black politician elected governor in the United States. He served as governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. Wilder has been sharply critical of Vice President Joe Biden’s controversial “chains” comment this week.
Gov. Wilder’s appearance at a fundraiser for the Republican presidential ticket is sure to set off shock waves among the Democrats, and lead to speculation that he could shake up the race with more criticism of the Democratic ticket.
Update: Inagist has a conflicting report.
Pool: Gov. Wilder was at the hotel, but he was apparently planning to attend Gov. McDonnell’s education summit and went to the wrong hotel.
My source says Gov. Wilder was acknowledged from the stage.
Update: Gov. Wilder certainly has reason to be annoyed with the Obama camp. He criticized Biden’s “chains” comment, only to have WH spokesman Jay Carney hit him back, saying that he didn’t have any point in criticizing Biden. Wilder returned to Fox this afternoon and spent a few minutes mocking Biden. On Twitter today, Gov. Wilder tweeted “We are not African Americans – we are all Americans.” That was an obvious shot at the Obama campaign’s divisive rhetoric.
One more point to make: That pool report above comes from the same media that did not report the FRC shooting for about two and in some cases three hours after it occurred. They don’t always know what’s going on before the rest of us do.
Update: Today, Gov. Wilder also tweeted “RCP: “Maybe voters won’t notice that this administration has lost hope and resists change.”: http://bit.ly/PrZWWn
The link goes to a column by conservative Debra Saunders, which rips both campaigns but especially the Obama campaign for negative ads. It criticizes the Joe Soptic ad.
Update: Here is video from Gov. Wilder’s appearance on Fox today. Wilder was very entertaining, and called Biden a “tar baby” that President Obama is stuck with.
Wow, that is amazing. Colin “weathervane” Powell cannot be far behind.
Pictures. I’ll not dare send this out until I see proof, because WHOA!!!!!!!
My source wasn’t able to get a pic. Hopefully someone else did.
– is coming in.
I’ll bet Wilder has a valid birth certificate.
Maybe everybody with a valid birth certificate will vote Republican just this once.
This is not true.
People- google “doug wilder romney fundraiser”
There is NOTHING IN THE NEWS.
We’re the first to report it.
I was there. Governor Wilder was definitely acknowledged from the stage. My friends and I all heard it and we talked about it.
Join the 21st century. If it is here it is in the news,
PJM is a legit news source. I trust it.
In view of these tweets, his presence at the fundraiser is not difficult to believe.
What NEWS do you watch/listen to?
Wilder has had a centrist streak, so it isn’t a huge shock. He’s backed Republicans before, but the first black Democratic governor anywhere going for Romney would be a coup.
“This is not true…there is nothing in the news”
So…I guess if the lamestream media says it is so it must be so.and conversly if they don’t talk about it it must not be true……..right…
Wow. That’s a Big F—ing Deal!
The next thing you know — Cornel West and Tavis Smiley will be attending Romney Campaign fundraisers.
Nahhhhhhhh.
The words you are looking for are “Preference Cascade”. We will see one in action over the next couple of months.
One by one, the chickens are coming home to roost.
As a (conservative) Richmond resident, I’m a big Wilder fan. I have to credit him for attempting common sence reform in his term as mayor here. Of course, he was demonized & demagogued to hell and back (from the usual suspects – teachers, city employees, etc.) for his troubles, which might make him more sympathetic to Romney than one might imagine.
“Pool: Gov. Wilder was at the hotel, but he was apparently planning to attend Gov. McDonnell’s education summit and went to the wrong hotel.”
Bryan, this is obfuscation. The Education Summit wasn’t at a hotel, it was at the Convention Center, which was down the street. And he wasn’t apparently planning to attend, he was going to be on an evening dinner panel 7-9PM) with McDonnell, Jindal and Fmr Gov Bob Wise of WV.
Wilder knows where the Convention Center is and wouldn’t confuse it with a hotel. If he was there at the fundraiser, it was purposeful even if it was only to meet up early with McDonnell and Jindal, or just to see what was going on at the Fundraiser.
Seems to me he was doing what he wanted to do and knew what he was doing, which apparently included poking Obama and Biden again.
I agree. He was showing his irritation at Biden and Obama for what has gone on this week.
Wilder was the last Democrat that I voted for. I’m still very pleased with how that vote turned out.
I talked about this in the other Wilder thread, but I’ll mention it here as well. While Doug Wilder isn’t a conservative, he’s far from a leftist either, and he’s generally an outcast within the Dem party establishment. That all stems from his feud with Chuck Robb, when the party for the most part took Robb’s side. Since that all went down (20 years ago or so), he’s made a point periodically to thumb his nose at them like when he refused to endorse Creigh Deeds in his race against Bob McDonnell.
He was a solid governor on the whole (hate his gun control boosterism, love his stance against tax increases and fiscal responsibility) and one of the few Democrats anywhere who has my respect.